Sorry about the top post, but I'm getting no replies..... guess youm can't see my posts.
Have many of you guys seen Toshiba DLP T.V.'s under warranty just have the lamps explode? I have had two now in only days. Replacing lamps isn't covered by factory warranty. Do you tell the customer to order a lamp, & put it in? Dani.
It's not top posting when you have the original question.
Lamps explode for one of two reasons, contaminants such as skin oil, or being fed too much voltage.
All these projectors that use lamps are a pain, not only to fix, but how to handle the business. Usually these things are just about untestable, the ballast has to fire the bulb up and then supply a sorta constant current. Without a proper load it will not work right.
What we do with full explanations of the situation is to get a down payment on the lamp. If the power supply is bad, if one can be had, then there is a revised estimate. The customer is free to take the lamp and sell it if he declines the repair.
I am currently trying to learn about LCD and DLP projectors, it is a new technology. We need to start getting into those "light engines" as well. Give me a CRT based projector anytime. It is going to be hard to make money on this stuff. I'm currently working on a HD 60" wide that needs one of the polarizing filters, I can find one, but it could take as many as three or four full R&Rs to get the orientation right. Even this group is devoid of any real help on the subject, but I have had to go it alone before, and I don't think this'll be the last time.
If you didn't touch the lamp or get any contaminants on it, it probably needs the power supply fixed or replaced. But then even if you didn't touch it, do you know that nobody else has either ?
The new version of a rock and a hard place. With the cost of the lamp, should you just make sure this time, have to charge probably $600 ? In my case it is a $5,000 TV, so more is warranted. What if it's only a
43" ? Bulb costs the same.Just some thoughts, wish I had more real help on this, oh boy do I.
JURB
We have had new ceiling mount projectors blow lamps. They were never touched and blew within 300 hours. I have not tried to repair "optical engine" problems either. Felt the same as you (being a pioneer). These projectors belong to my company, so there are no estimates / customer interactions. I have seen bulbs go bad with only a few hundred hours and some were bright when the "lamp change" message came up. Most don't make the "specified lifetime". Good Luck
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote:
Actually, our experience after years of selling lamp based LCD and DLP systems is that most do last beyond the rated life. Some don't even get close, but the vast majority do. We have seen a big difference in the lamps from Philips vs Osram, however. The former seem to have bad batches of lamps supplied to various vendors, while the latter seem to be more consistently lasting the expected life.
Leonard
Sounds like you need to take legal advice. The lamp on mine (in the UK) is covered by the vendor's 5 year warranty. And unless there is a specific life mentioned in the spec I'd expect it to have the same maker's warranty as the rest of the set. It's not, after all, like say brake pads on a car where the life depends on how it is driven...
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*They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.
Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
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